Bitcoin value passes $1,000 for first time ever

Bitcoin, the digital ‘crypto-currency’ has passed the $1,000 mark for the first time in history, marking a growth of some 4,000 percent since the beginning of the year. The milestone was recorded by Tokyo-based Mt Gox bitcoin exchange on Wednesday.

The unregulated virtual currency's popularity has been soaring
in recent weeks, having doubled in just the past seven
days. In just one day, November 18, the price leaped from $478 in
the morning to $744 at midnight (GMT).

This was the same day that US Senate Homeland Security &
Governmental Affairs Committee held
the currency's first Congressional hearing entitled “Beyond
Silk Road: Potential Risks, Threats and Promises of Virtual
Currencies” to take a close look at existing virtual
currencies, including bitcoin.

Bitcoin temporarily exceeded the equivalent of $1,000 on the
Chinese exchange, BTC China, on the 19th of November. However,
this is the first time the $1,000 mark has been surpassed in a US
dollar-denominated exchange rate.

China is one of the world’s biggest bitcoin markets, but demand
for the virtual currency appears to be exploding on a global
level. The University of Nicosia (UNic), one of the major
English-language universities in the Mediterranean, announced
during the past week that it would be accepting bitcoin payments
for its digital currency program next year.

This month, the Chicago Federal Reserve
observed that the currency was “a remarkable conceptual
and technical achievement,” noting how there are on average
about 30 bitcoin transactions per minute.

The decentralized, crypto-currency is free from any government or
central bank control. Currency is sold and bought at online
exchanges, and those transactions can be virtually anonymous.

Since its inception in 2008 by a man using the alias ‘Satoshi
Nakmoto’, bitcoin has now gone mainstream; it can be used to buy
coffee, pay for online dating services, and can even be retrieved
from an ATM. According to Bitcoincharts, which follows the
anonymous currency, there are nearly 12 million bitcoins in
circulation.

The year has witnessed bitcoin play an increasingly major role in
financial transactions globally. Over $1mn in bitcoins was
stolen
from an Australian online bank at the beginning of November,
while the first bitcoin ATM opened
in Vancouver, south west Canada at the end of October. Germany
is fast becoming a hotbed of exchanges, with August 16 marking
its official recognition by the country under the term
“Rechnungseinheiten,” which roughly translates to “units of
account.”

The FBI also forced closure of
illegal online drugs and weapons store Silk Road in October,
which used the currency exclusively, on account of the difficulty
of identifying anonymous users. However, a new
'incarnation' of the store was opened in November.